Kaykay's nano adventure 2'x2'x1.5'

[kaykay]

Inherited a 2x2x1.5 tank with cabinet.

It came just at the right time. I was running out of space for coral placement. Cleaning the tank glass also required dexterous wrist and fingers to maneuver the piece of cleaning gauze, and still I always never fail to knock some loose frags off the rockscape.

When I first collected the tankset.

It needed some sprucing up.

I never really fancied open top tanks, although the ease of top view is tempting. I cannot take the risk of my naughty boy dipping his hands in the tank, or the accidental splash of water on the floor and on the wall.

The tank also looks kinda short standing next to the existing tank.

So this is what I did.

I built a base to prop the cabinet higher. I then built a hood to complete the look.

Haha, I still am a very DIY reefer.

[kaykay]

Cycling.

Not wanting to spend on delivery of nsw, nor wasting clean water to do leak test, I DI the water in the tank after filling up for the leak test.

This is my DIY DI unit in the DT.

Added salt directly into the DT after achieving 0ppm of TDS.

Livesand and some rocks went in next. No specific scape in mind as yet. The rocks are there to host bacteria for the cycling..

[kaykay]

Filtration.

I'm still gonna put my faith on natural nutrient export. My underflow algae scrubber UAS has served me very well in my existing tank. So I'm just upsizing the screen and lights to cater to the bigger water volume and increase asked bioload (added 6 pcs of anthias .

In fact I just complete the new UAS yesterday. Seeding it with the old pc of turf to kickstart the algae growth.

A bag of rowaphos and a bag of GAC in the sump takes care of the chemical filtration, while a bag of biohome increases the quantum of bacteria to break down ammonia.

[[V]tEc]

Why not invest in a FR?

Rowa will actually work better in a FR.

just my 2 cents

[kaykay]

Lighting.

My initial plan was to run a MH and T5 combo.

The idea is to DIY using aluminium bars, with the MH in the centre and 2 tubes of T5 flanking it.

I was fascinated with the brightness of MH, like how the previous owner of this tank ran it.

Eventually, I could not convince myself of the heat from MH, and the discomfort of viewing the tank on hot Singapore summer nights. And even though the cost of tubes change every few months deterred me initially, I got convinced after speaking to a few bros here.

What I went for..

6 tubes of T5, DIY on aluminium frame.

2 x ATI Blue Plus

2 x ATI Aquablue Special Plus

1 x ATI Purple Plus

1 x Giesseman Actinic Plus

[kaykay]

Rockscaping.

I very much wanted an open-spaced type of rockscape for free swimming fishes, yet retain sufficient real estate on the rocks for coral placement.

So this is what I came up with..

Will be using this structure to prop up a flatish piece of LR, so fishes can hover under the shelter of this ledge, and a top plateau for sps frags should I venture into the dark side.

The main idea is to place SPS frags on the top rock.

The middle tier on the right will be some branching LPS.

A zoas garden will be at the bottom right.

Some tube worms will take shelter under the shade of the rockworks on the snadbed at the left.

Some pics of the livestock.

Got 6 of these blue eyed lyretail anthias from thread fish carnival at imm early Dec.

One of these females has started to morph into the alpha male. Colour is turning pinkish and the pectoral fins are a shade of black. Damnned nice. Wait till I get a good shot of him.

Cleaning station.

[kaykay]

tEc' timestamp='1357055871' post='1082612']Why not invest in a FR?

Rowa will actually work better in a FR.

just my 2 cents

The sump is very small, and the interior cabinet has limited height. And I'm placing a piece of clear acrylic on top of the sump to prevent saltcreep within the cabinet.

I also hated changing media in frs, I always cause puddles within the sump..

Thanks.

[Admiraltian]

Will be camping here for updates.

[kaykay]

Taking risks...

Have been wanting to have a clean look for my aquarium. Cable management was a big challenge for me. Using cable organisers was a chore. It looks cumbersome too.

So I decided to take some risks. I decided to hide all the cables in the cabinet. The biggest problem is the cabinet size. The sump tank takes up almost 3/4 of the cabinet. That leave precious little space for electrical points.

I know I know.. by right, electrical connections should not even be near water, let alone fast moving salt water.. So I had to take all precautions, and be extra careful when I do maintenance..

A piece of clear acrylic covers 80 of the sump tank to stop and contain the splash.

[rekian]

How does your piping with lots of holes work?

[kaykay]

How does your piping with lots of holes work?

That is just a skeletal structure to prop up a piece of liverock to make an overhang.

[kaykay]

Had a battle with marine velvet a few days ago.

I'm sad to announce my defeat.

Lost most of the fish to this deadly disease.

Casualty list:

6 blue eye lyretail anthias.

Watanabei angel

Powder blue tang

Juvenile Atlantic blue tang

Mandarin fish

Survivors are actually the first 5 inhabitants that I acquired. They really are survivors.

Blue tang.

Tailspot blenny.

Firefish.

Pair of clownfish.

All the survivors are now in a separate tank undergoing treatment and isolation.

The display tank is now fishless. Will be fallow for 30 days to starve the pathogens to death and break the lifecycle. Looks like gonna leave it fishless for longer. As quarantine of new fishes will only start in a week or 2.

My lifeless tank tonight.

Front view.

Right side.

[kaykay]

I should have noticed the change in behaviour earlier before the velvety spots appeared.

After the death of the powder blue and Atlantic blue tangs, the anthias seem to lose their appetite bit by bit. Most of them also took turns to go to the shrimps for cleaning.

In loving memory of the social butterflies of my tank..

[dnsfpl]

sorry for your lost

try soaking the food in garlic and do more minor water change

cheers

[Admiraltian]

Hope u will come back stronger, cheers.

[stevenchia]

quick catch out your infected fishes..and qt it with lower salinity level of saltwater. Quick dips of freshwater for 5 mins and it will be cured. I did a few times on my clown fish.

[kaykay]

quick catch out your infected fishes..and qt it with lower salinity level of saltwater. Quick dips of freshwater for 5 mins and it will be cured. I did a few times on my clown fish.

Thanks all fish are caught and quarantined now. Left only 5 fish now.

[kaykay]

sorry for your lost

try soaking the food in garlic and do more minor water change

cheers

Yup. I've never been so diligent in performing water change before. Thanks.

[kaykay]

Hope u will come back stronger, cheers.

Will definitely be. Hopefully wiser too..

Thanks.

[linko]

Hi Bro,

Sad to know about your lost.

Wishing the best luck to the left 5 fishes and hope you'll be back stronger very soon.

Bytheway, could your care to write up more about your DIY DI unit when everythings are steady.

I loved to do it too.

linko

[kaykay]

Hi Bro,

Sad to know about your lost.

Wishing the best luck to the left 5 fishes and hope you'll be back stronger very soon.

Bytheway, could your care to write up more about your DIY DI unit when everythings are steady.

I loved to do it too.

linko

Hi bro Linko,

The writeup can be found on post #23 on my previous tank thread.

Have fun building it..

[linko]

Hi bro Linko,

The writeup can be found on post #23 on my previous tank thread.

Have fun building it..

There ve been lots of DIY works to learn.

Thanks for your kind sharing.

[kaykay]

Taking precautions against parasite warfare.

Prevention is better than cure. In order not to introduce parasites in my DT again, I'm taking to QT of all newly bought fishes from now on.

Just collected my independently-partitioned tank for my QT use, after which the biggest compartment will be used for a species tank.

For the moment, the big compartment will be the hospital tank for the current 5 survivors.

Bought a simple hob filter box. Still thinking about cooling the tank in the neatest manner possible..

[[V]tEc]

Taking precautions against parasite warfare.

Prevention is better than cure. In order not to introduce parasites in my DT again, I'm taking to QT of all newly bought fishes from now on.

Just collected my independently-partitioned tank for my QT use, after which the biggest compartment will be used for a species tank.

For the moment, the big compartment will be the hospital tank for the current 5 survivors.

Bought a simple hob filter box. Still thinking about cooling the tank in the neatest manner possible..

without lighting and only 1 HOB filter, water temp should be below 30 degree. however if u wan to bring it lower, u can always add a fan. just watch out for evaporation.

[kaykay]

Some updates on the QT. It's now sitting atop the cabinet I didn't really feel like selling.. I like it too much lol. There's no new fish yet though. No doubt I'm feeling discouraged, and not as confident as before. The velvet outbreak is really a humbling experience. Actually the survival list has gotten very short - only the firefish is left. Picking up carcasses every other day brought a new heartbreak each time. R.I.P. all my angels.. My very lifeless empty tank.